1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer graphics and, more specifically, to a technique for filling holes in a three-dimensional model.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional rendering application is typically configured to generate a polygonal mesh that represents the surface of an object within a three-dimensional (3D) environment. A given polygonal mesh could resemble a real-world object such as a human being, or a virtual object such as a video game character. A polygonal mesh generated by a conventional rendering application oftentimes includes “holes” where the surface of the object is not defined by the rendering application. In some cases, such holes are intentional (i.e., the object actually has a hole and the surface is not meant to be defined), although in other cases, such holes are the result of improper or unsuccessful generation of the polygonal mesh.
For example, in the field of three-dimensional scanning, a rendering application may receive input from a 3D scanner that reflects a scanned real-world object, and the rendering application may then generate a polygonal mesh that represents that real-world object. However, conventional rendering applications are usually not capable of generating portions of the polygonal mesh corresponding to regions of the real-world object that are not visible to the 3D scanner. In such situations, those regions may simply appear as a “hole” in the polygonal mesh.
A conventional rendering application may attempt to repair the hole in the polygonal mesh by adding a fill surface to the mesh that is composed of additional polygons. However, a fill surface generated by a conventional rendering application often has a physical shape and overall appearance that is inconsistent with the physical characteristics of the polygonal mesh as a whole. Further, conventional rendering applications typically cannot generate fill surfaces for holes having arbitrary shapes, and may thus fail to generate fill meshes for more “complicated” holes. In addition, such applications typically require significant time in order to compute fill surfaces, resulting in a poor user experience.
As the foregoing illustrates, what is needed in the art is a more effective technique for filling holes in a polygonal mesh.